Former boxing champ Mike Tyson said in an exclusive interview with POLITICO that he never did drugs aboard Florida U.S. Senate hopeful Jeff Greene's yacht as they traveled together on the Summerwind in August 2005.

"Jeff had nothing to do with it," Tyson said Tuesday. "I didn't do drugs on the boat. I had a problem. I had just lost a fight. I was depressed. I was fighting for 20 years, I was finding out after 20 years I was broke. Jeff said, 'Come with me on the Summerwind.'"

And he credited Greene, who says he drove Tyson personally to a rehab center two years ago and then paid "tens of thousands of dollars" toward his recovery, with saving his life.

Tyson's role in Greene's life prior to his campaign had become an increasing issue in the nasty Florida Democratic primary battle against Rep. Kendrick Meek.

POLITICO recently reported that an interview the newly sober Tyson gave to Sports Illustrated, in which he described a hazy summer during his "junkie" days, was renewing the focus on Greene's relationship with the former champ, who was the best man at the businessman-turned-candidate's wedding. Tyson has famously struggled with addiction for years, and described, in the SI interview, stops he made throughout Europe that Greene later confirmed were places the Summerwind stopped. Tyson never mentioned the boat, or drugs aboard it, with the magazine, singling out a spot in Amsterdam where he said he got high and partied. Greene wasn't with him in Amsterdam.

But Greene insisted he has a "zero tolerance policy" for drugs on the boat, and Tyson said he never did anything while aboard the 145-foot luxury yacht that the candidate refers to as a second home.

"I would go places," Tyson said. "I wasn't with Jeff 24 hours a day. I wasn't on the boat 24 hours a day."

Tyson also voluntarily described an incident in Sardinia, where the yacht docked at one point that August, in which he was charged — and later cleared — of a sex assault in which the woman making the accusation claimed he'd wanted her to do drugs.

"I got into a problem with a young lady that came on the boat," he said. "Jeff and everyone was sleeping. ... She said I had beat her or something. The cops came over she said we had drugs on the boat, we had guns on the boat."

He said, "Cops came and searched the boat and they found nothing."

News articles from the time say that Italian cops searched the boat and found no evidence of wrongdoing, and called the incident a "figment" of the accuser's imagination.

Tyson's past troubles are well-documented — he spent three years in prison on a rape conviction, made repeated rehab stints and was one of the most talented fighters of his time, only to become most famous for the Evander Holyfield fight in which he chomped on his opponent's ear.

But Tyson insisted those days are behind him.

"I've been drug-free for two years, a little over a year and a half. I don't smoke cigarettes, I don't drink, I am a vegan now," said Tyson, who is elusive for interviews but was made available by the campaign.

He said that his wife is pregnant and that, "If it wasn't for Jeff, I'd probably be ODed somewhere."

Greene has been dogged by questions about that trip with Tyson, as well as other famous frienships like one with Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss and parties aboard the yacht, since he entered the race. The questions from local and national press have intensified since the race against Meek has tightened.

Greene told POLITICO recently that he hadn't spoken with Tyson in awhile, in part because the former fighter lives in Las Vegas and the candidate is campaigning.